Zach Shiyurei
Zachary "Zach" Reginald Shiyurei is a 16-year-old human-Ectonurite reruma and the heir to the Shiyurei clan. He is a radical revolutionary who wishes to destroy humanity in order to liberate rerumas, and opposes the goals and ideals of the Plumbers' Helpers. He leads a team of powerful rerumas known as the Initiates. Zach is the main antagonist of Rerumas: A Ben 10 Story, and the archenemy of Max Glenn. Biography Zachary Shiyurei was born in Japan to the Shiyurei clan, a cult of dark magicians and rerumas devoted to the worship of Anur Phaetos and the Ectonurite species. Zach's mother Itagaki Shiyurei, the clan's matriarch, is the daughter of a human father and an Ectonurite mother, who were wed as per the cult's ancient traditions. Itagaki married a powerful British dark magician, Reginald Blackwood, in order to expand the cult's influence in the West; they had two reruma children, Zach and Wendy Shiyurei. As the oldest child of Itagaki, Zach is considered the clan's heir. By clan tradition, Zach and Wendy inherited their mother's surnames, but were given Westernized given names by their father. Zach and Wendy spent their childhood in England with their father, where Zach attended various prestigious schools. He was considered to be highly precocious and a genius intellectually. Nonetheless, his identity as a reruma was difficult to hide due to his abnormal physical features, and he was constantly alienated at school. Zach became interested in the global decline of rerumas at this time, especially under movements such as Planetary Priority and the Homeworld movement in the U.S. Zach became fascinated with philosophy, and eventually developed a belief that rerumas needed to overthrow both humanity and aliens in order to validate their own existence. During his teen years, Zach struck out on his own and began to travel the world, seeking rerumas to ignite his revolutionary vision. He seemingly got his wish when he visited Bellwood and encountered the Plumbers' Helpers, a team of rerumas led by the human Omnitrix-bearer Max Glenn. Zach became greatly interested in the reruma Helpers - Betty Augen, Niko Yamamoto, and Lyssa - but resented Max for being a human leading them, and for his alleged presumptuousness in attempting to empathize with them. Eventually, this led to an impasse, with Zach wishing for the rerumas to join him in overthrowing humanity and the Plumbers. The Helpers sided with Max, and the two sides battled, with a defeated Zach fleeing. Following his defeat, Zach was recalled to Japan by Itagaki, who reprimanded him for his rebelliousness. Nonetheless, she expressed an interest in the Helpers and acknowledged the need for the Shiyurei clan to combat the Plumbers. She instructed Zach to seek out three individuals identified by the clan as being rerumas of Anur system species - Thep Khufan reruma Sitre in Egypt, Transylian reruma Jack Shelley in England, and Loboan reruma Luna Long in Iowa - and recruit them into the clan as its newest Initiates. Zach agreed to follow his mother's orders, secretly seeing this as his opportunity to form the team of revolutionary rerumas he had dreamt of. Personality Zach initially comes off as an intelligent, well-spoken, and mature individual. He has a genius-level intellect and is knowledgeable in a wide range of subjects, including alien life and rerumas. He considers himself to be a pragmatist in all matters, focusing on logical solutions and rejecting emotional considerations for the most part. He also comes off as somewhat patronizing, believing himself to be more intelligent than most of his peers. Zach values his mental fortitude above all else, especially because his mind is central in the control of his telekinetic powers. Zach is a cold-hearted, pragmatic, nihilistic individual who wishes to see rerumas rise as a dominating power on Earth as part of inevitable evolutionary "survival of the fittest." Though his goal is the survival of the rerumas on Earth, he holds a deep hatred for humans and is unwilling to cooperate with them, calling it "evolutionary incompatibilism". He also rejects idealism, emotionalism, and "wishful thinking," believing only in logical solutions to the problems of individuals and groups. He believes the value of individuals is solely determined by their contribution to the progress and survival of their species. Zach's genius intellect allows him to be a cunning, laser-focused tactician. He is also shrewd and manipulative, and knows how to get under people's skin. He speaks a number of different languages, including English, Japanese, French, and German, and is also a master of a number of martial arts. Philosophy During his years of schooling, Zach took a deep interest in political and social philosophy, as well as the global decline of rerumas under human oppression. His greatest focuses included postmodern literature and social-conflict theory. He eventually developed a philosophical worldview based on the concept of "the Other," or that which is rejected or alienated by the dominant societal framework. Zach believes that society consists of various groups fighting for control, in a similar manner to biological evolution, in which eventually one group emerges dominant and the other is extinguished. This manifests in the form of a battle between the establishment and the Other, which either ends with the establishment being preserved, or the Other overriding it. These two are mutually exclusive and cannot be compatible with one another and see the long-term preservation of both; one must eventually destroy the other to safeguard its own existence. Zach applies this philosophy to the relationship between humans, aliens, and rerumas. From his perspective, all species in the galaxy - including humans, Galvan, Tetramands, etc. - have their own establishments which alienate other species as "the Other." The Plumbers, he asserts, are naive for believing that they can cross these planetary boundaries; Zach considers the Twilight War to have been an inevitable separation between these disparate societies. Because of their unique nature, Zach considers rerumas to be "Other" to not only humans, but the entirety of the galaxy, meaning they exist in a category of their own. From his perspective, the only way for rerumas to survive is for them to eradicate the other alienating establishments; on Earth, this means overthrowing humanity, and perhaps even committing genocide in order to ensure reruma dominance. He implies that this is only the first step, and that rerumas would have to go on to destroy all other species in the galaxy in order to truly survive. The ideology of the Initiates is based on Zach's philosophies. Unlike the Helpers, who believe in coexistence and empathy between different species, including humans and rerumas, the Initiates oppose humans and anyone who supports them or more moderate political standpoints. Because they believe their own existence requires that they destroy humanity, the Initiates are willing to ruthlessly murder and terrorize innocent humans in order to further their own goals. In general, Zach's philosophy contrasts with that of the Helpers in that the Helpers believe that the similarities between species outweigh their differences, while Zach and the Initiates emphasize the differences and see them as making different species incompatible. Relationships Max Glenn Max and Zach contrast sharply with one another, and Zach acts as something of a foil for Max. Unlike Zach, Max is empathetic and idealistic, and wishes for cooperation and understanding between rerumas, aliens, and humans. Max is also insecure and doubtful, unlike Zach, who is self-assured and narcissistic. Zach sees lethal violence as a necessary means of survival, while Max does not approve of any killing or unnecessary violence whatsoever. Zach sees Max as a foolish dreamer without the nerve or strength to lead the Plumbers' Helpers. He also treats Max with resentment, asserting that he isn't "one of us" (a reruma) and thus doesn't deserve to be the leader of the Plumbers' Helpers. Betty Augen As with the other rerumas, Zach was kind and gentlemanly toward Betty, and wanted to convince her not to follow Max. Betty was shy around Zach, as with most other people. After Betty demonstrated her loyalty to Max in spite of him being a human and her not, Zach came to view Betty as a fool and chastised her for her decision. For-Fun Sheet Trivia * Zach Shiyurei was one of the first original characters created for Rerumas. In the first draft of the story, he was named Lucas Casper. Gallery Shiyurei.png Zach 2.png Zach.png Zach, a nice guy.png Category:Characters Category:Villains Category:Rerumas Category:Shiyurei clan Category:Initiates